Ok a little update. I figured out the source of my noise and transmission problems. I finally the trans out, and opened it up. The spider gears that turn the cv ring gears had eaten themselves almost smooth. There were handfuls of metal shaving on the magnets and everywhere else. I finally got it all cleaned up, and I'm going to attempt to replace the spider gears and use the same transmission instead of swapping the trans. I think the spider gears in the sohc trans are the same, but I'm going to take them both out and measure and count the teeth to make sure.